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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Halifax
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(91,000 in 1991) Town in West Yorkshire, on the river Hebble, which was a major centre of English cloth production in the late Middle Ages; it was also known at the time for its own form of capital punishment, the Halifax gibbet (last used in 1650), which was an early version of the *guillotine. With its long industrial history, Halifax is now rich in related museums. The Calderdale Industrial Museum occupies a 19C mill; on an adjacent site the pre-industrial history of the wool trade is displayed in the Piece Hall, a large colonnaded building (completed in 1779), which was the cloth market to which the cottage weavers brought their finished 'pieces' of cloth for sale.
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The rural side of pre-industrial economy can be seen in the West Yorkshire Folk Museum at Shibden Hall, a partly timber-framed manor house with a magnificent 17C barn. A stimulating addition to Halifax's museums opened in 1992 in the form of Eureka!, Britain's first interactive museum for children; funded by the Duffield and Clore Foundations, it involves 5–12-year-olds in a 'hands-on experience' of many aspects of everyday life.
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